Professional organizer continues workshops through March in Greeley

Gail Newton said a lot of her clients get nervous when she tells them she’ll hold their work to a standard of perfection.

Clients usually relax once she explains her definition of perfect: “The best you can imagine it being for you.”

Newton is a professional organizer in Greeley working under the name Your House in Order. After the first half-hour or hour-and-a-half organizing with clients, Newton said she often hears the words come from the clients’ mouths themselves, “That’s perfect.”

Newton said she’s been about as busy as she’d like to be over the past 15 years, with no end in sight of clients who could use professional organizing, whether it’s a kitchen job, a house job or an office. She’s holding organizing workshops through the month of March, with a final workshop open to the public in late April.

Your House in Order 2019 workshops

Gail Newton, owner of Your House in Order, is hosting workshops for organizing through March in Greeley. Topics include “Space Analysis 101,” “Hoarders and Chronic Disorganization,” “Simplifying Your Life” and “Time Management 104.” Workshops are from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays through March 28 in the community room at FMS Bank, 2425 35th Ave. in Greeley. Cost is $25 per person per workshop. To pre-register, call (970) 351-8682, or mail to House in Order, 1033 22nd Avenue Court, Greeley, CO 80631.

The final workshop, “Staging for Aging,” about downsizing and preparing for transition in the senior years, will be from 6:30-8 p.m. April 29 at the Adamson Community Room, 2000 47th Ave. The workshop is free.

Your House in Order began about 23 years ago, when Newton took a temporary job filing in someone’s home office. Her background as a real estate agent and office manager helped lend her expertise, and for the next two and a half years Newton and her husband were doing professional organizing before they knew what to call it. Her sister encouraged her to check out Colorado Professional Organizers, and Newton finally had some tools to market the business.

Newton said people’s biggest organizing issue is usually keeping paper organized. Some can benefit from going paperless with their files, but electronic systems can also be a nemesis, she warned.

“You really need to study how it is working for you,” Newton said.

Paper filing is tedious and labor-intensive work, so Newton limits filing to about three-hour chunks. In any kind of organizing job, she explained, it’s important to set realistic goals. If the scope of someone’s de-cluttering is too small, clutter in other areas could start to spill back over into a de-cluttered space. Rather than organizing just a few kitchen drawers for example, Newton said “everything comes out” when she does a kitchen job.

Newton picked up the language of organizer Julie Morgenstern to explain how many people looking to de-clutter often start in “attack” mode. Instead, Morgenstern’s model starts by analyzing the situation, formulating a strategy for organizing and then launching the “attack.” Rather than bringing little pockets of relief, this model can help bring results that last — something Newton guarantees.

The number one cause of clutter, whether the clutter manifests in paper, relationships or finances, is poor decision making, according to Newton. That includes the decision, “I really don’t want to think about this,” she said.

When clients hire Newton, however, they have someone to hold them accountable for making decisions, while Newton uses her expertise to build organized systems. Newton admits the work is difficult, but rewarding.

“To make a difference in a life and to be involved in the process of any person’s transformation is a really big deal,” she said.